Since neutral fat accumulated in the body owing to lack of exercise, excessive eating, etc. increases the risk of life-style related diseases, there has recently been a desire for suppression of the accumulation of neutral fat. Further, various compositions containing carotenoid have been developed, focusing on high functionality of carotenoid. In such a circumstance, various techniques have been proposed, expecting that carotenoid exerts fat accumulation suppressing effects.
For example, Japanese Patent National-Stage Publication (JP-A) No. 2009-535303 proposes use of a lycopene compound in treatment of metabolic function disorder, and discloses that the total cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations in blood serum are normalized using, for example, a lactolycopene formulation.
Furthermore, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2007-269631 discloses that lycopene extracted from tomato oleoresin decreases neutral fat concentrations in liver and in blood.